“M&OW” tidbits from an article in ‘The Providence’

I still have to do some catching up on “M&OW” but thought I’ll post at least the new stuff so I won’t get further behind.

There is a new article in The Providence (7 July 2008) with James Tupper which has a reasonable part about Me and Orson Welles. Here are the relevant sections:

The 42-year-old Tupper was a veteran of stage work in New York and Canada before TV found him. He returned — sort of — to those roots this spring with a role in director Richard Linklater’s backstage drama Me and Orson Welles, about a 1937 New York stage production of Julius Caesar by Welles’ Mercury Theatre company.

Tupper co-stars as actor Joseph Cotten, the longtime Welles collaborator who later would star with Welles in Citizen Kane. The Linklater movie filmed for six weeks in Britain’s Pinewood Studios.

“One of the best replicas of an old New York theatre we could get was in England,” says Tupper. “A lot of the actors who filled out the company were from the Royal Shakespeare Company.”

The Brits had dialogue coaches, but kept asking Canadian Tupper for advice on American speech.

“Richard set us up with these rehearsals that were like 12 hours a day and what ended up happening is we formed these relationships, in character, that would naturally grow in a theatre company. When it came to shooting it was a really subtle and natural progression — here’s the camera now and we’re going to keep on doing what we’re doing.”

Welles’ production of Julius Caesar drew attention at the time for using Nazi imagery and movements to lampoon Hitler’s regime. Tupper watched Citizen Kane over again to help his portrayal. “I wanted to imitate him, but I really had to think about what Cotten would have been like as a young actor before his fame, just working in the company with the guys.”

Newcomer Christian McKay plays Welles, while High School Musical heartthrob Zac Efron plays a new member of the company, which gave Tupper a glimpse of a whole other level of fame.

“We’d come out of the theatre after shooting and there’s a crowd of 25 school girls screaming,” says Tupper. “It’s like knowing a Beatle.”